The Indian cricket team successfully retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after out-muscling the Australian cricket team in the series by 2-1 scoreline where the 4th and the final match of the series ended in a draw in Ahmedabad.
The Indian cricket team made history back in the year 2021 when they won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. That was a historic moment for them as they did it with a number of senior players missing for the series and the youngsters stepped-up to win the series for what was then led Ajinkya Rahane.
This year the story was different. Team India had a full strength team by their side and the home conditions as well. And for India, the spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja Ravichandran Ashwin proved to be spectacular for the entirety of the series, so much so that the BCCI couldn’t resist giving both of them the Player of the Series award.
However, after Team India’s win in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, now huge question marks are being raised over the future of the duo in the Indian cricket team’s dressing room. With both of them aged 34 and 36 years-old, the question is how long will they play of team India with also new generation emerging.
Rohit Sharma, the Indian cricket team captain spoke about the same in detail during a media interaction after the series win. Sharma said he is not sure either whether they will be playing for the team for some more time or not. He laughed though that he will be around the team for sure. But he hoped that they will stay with the team.
Rohit Sharma said, “Honestly if they’ll be around, I don’t know, I’ll be around (laughs). A large part of our success belongs to those two guys. I can only hope that they continue to play as long as possible, because those shoes will definitely be very, very big one to fill. So I hope for the sake of Indian cricket they continue as long as they can.”
Both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were highest wicket-taker in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 with 22 and 25 wickets respectively, combining for a total of 47 wickets between the two.
After winning the series vs Australia, Team India have now booked its place into the final of the World Test Championship 2023 Final where they will once again take on Australia. With the conditions favouring pacers in England, the venue for the World Test Championship Final, it could be possible that not both of the two would play the Final against Australia.